Letter: Lever's true model village

Sir: What tripe Jonathan Glancey writes (Architecture, 20 August) about Port Sunlight and Billy Lever's role in its building.

The village itself, far from being "dwarves' cottages in black and white vernacular" is a handsome and telling contribution to the architecture of the period and is still an adornment to the Wirral peninsula. Lever himself lived there in a huge house in the centre of the village and many of his managers were proud to occupy the beautifully designed larger houses. The village itself contained one of the best art galleries in the North of England, a hospital, a school, a coaching inn and three employees' clubs. The landscaping and playing fields would put many a modern town to shame.

As to the villagers doffing caps as the "nabobs paraded round the houses", Mr Glancey does not know the Birkenhead working man. Nor does he know much about Port Sunlight village. I do; I lived there.

DON WEBB

London SW6